Going into the adoption process through Ethiopia, we knew that, even being open to a child with special needs or a toddler (as opposed to a newborn), the wait could be roughly 2 years. Well that wait continued to creep into another 2 years, then 2 1/2 years, then 3 years, then beyond... We also received some updates regarding proposed changes to laws and policies in Ethiopia that had us concerned that, even when the time came to be matched with our kiddo, we would no longer even be qualified. Meanwhile update after update regarding a great need for families open to waiting children from the China program ... especially boys... kept finding their way into my inbox. I peered into big beautiful dark eyes of little one after little one in need of a family while our paperwork sat half way across the world, while we were here with arms ready to embrace and love another little one.
Early in March, Colbie was coming up on her 1st bday and Matt was coming up on his 30th (which is a qualification to adopt from China and one of the reasons we didn't pursue the China program earlier). I prayed over all those little photos and update emails, I cried tears of confusion and worry over possibly switching programs...we love Ethiopia without ever setting foot on their soil. We poured so much of ourselves into that stack of our life that sits in their beautiful country...it's a hard decision to make but in the end I decided it was time to be brave and ask my husband where he stood on this (don't get me wrong: I had been forwarding those emails and hints for a while, it wasn't a total shock).
We went out to eat and to a concert together for a date night, just me and my man and finally I said, " What about China??" He wasn't exactly on board at first. We were Ethiopia ready. We had our reasons for going that direction and this was a big change. I mentioned that they really need families for boys...another son...a brother for Garrett...2 boys 2 girls. I said think about it. By the end of our date his heart was already changing...I texted my mission trip leader and personal prayer warrior Becki (who has a daughter adopted from China) and asked for her prayers I knew we were close to this big leap.
On March 10th 2016 we emailed our family coordinator and asked to transfer programs, we filled out our pre-application for the China program. we waited.
We were accepted and we officially transferred that next week.
With China being it's own, separate program with it's own rules and requirements, we had to start the paper chase ALL OVER AGAIN. Luckily, having already done this once, we moved through those steps pretty quickly. We met with our new social worker and had our home study meetings done by Lydia's birthday party on April 30th. Of course, we dealt with some hiccups with Indiana clearances and it took us a bit to get to this point but our Home Study is approved as of this Monday and we will be applying for our 1800 within the week (this is clearance through US immigration to bring an orphan back to the US. Kinda a huge deal.)
So, that is where we are. We anticipate being LID to China by end of August (LID - Log in Date of our dossier to China) which means we would be able to receive a referral and move towards bringing a SON home. The Heinekamp family will officially grow within the year from 5 to 6. A son between the ages of Newborn to 3, we are adopting from the waiting child program which means our son will come to us with some type of special need, we don't know what this will be yet but we've poured over the list of needs we would be open to and some on our "maybe" list, it was one of the hardest parts of this process so far but we are at peace that we will know our son when we see him that those needs will be a bump in the road compared the entirety of this boys life as our son.
China....who knew?!?!
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